Hike to the Lake, Paint!

74  F  Hazy

I took a hike down in this ravine:

Spetzgarter Tobel

that lead me under a highway through the little town of Goldbach, and to the lake. It took about a 1/2 hour each way to hike there, and I got back just in time for dinner!

#358 View of Lake from rt. K7772 Goldbach, Germany.

11 x 14

canvas

My supplies hadn't come in, and I just couldn't paint on that white canvas, so I rubbed a little burnt sienna into the canvas before I started.

I was pleasantly surprised that the ground didn't come up in the white that much.

There was a subtle difference in the white of the sky and the light of the water.

I didn't have a lot of time, because dinner is served for 1/2 hour and if I missed it I would be hungry!

Just before I finished I pulled out the black, I just wasn't getting my paint dark enough.

Money shot.

I got to this spot and liked the scene but the side walk had a lot of bicyclists on it, and the train came by very fast.

Looking North west.

I took a few pics on my way back....

A very old barn.

Each little hamlet has one!

I'd like to get a rudimentary understanding of signs.....

 I got some supplies and prepared for tomorrow.  All that hiking around, and catching up on jet lag, it's time for bed!

Where is Julie Andrews?

70  F little hazy, but starting to clear.

My first spot is maybe 200 yards or so from my room, I got out of the art supply trip because Kerstin offered to pick up the few things I needed.  I don't have turpentine so I couldn't tone my canvas, but I wanted to start anyway....

This is my panel carrier, ready for my day!  I have a panel, a prepared canvas (store-bought) taped to a blank panel, and two pieces of prepared paper taped to another blank, and a fresh piece of plexi glass for a pallet. This is me refusing to change the way I work, it's altered a bit......

I wanted to see what was out the door, so I started out on one of many paths that criss-cross the land here, and determined that I could easily spend my residency painting within hiking distance of this place, and I love that!

I brought about 70 surfaces to paint on, and I'm not sure if that's enough! But I don't want to let that hinder me, and if I run out, I'll just have to get more.

The color of the lake is subtlety different than anything we have at home, and I'm sure there will be many attempts to get this.

  This is where I left this little sketch.

#356 view of lake Constance

oil on paper

5 x 7

Money shot, these aren't as good as the ones on panels because of the border........

They had us pack lunch, they had these.....

I continued on to see what else was in hiking distance, not 1/2 mile there is a small farm hamlet........


note to self: change some $ into euros so I can get coffee at the cafe'.

I'll come back and paint in or near the village, but I had decided I wanted to subject a tree, I looped around and found this one.

first...

2nd

3rd

Done.

Money.


#357 tree

oil on paper

10 x 7

The shade of the tree was nice, and so was having remembered to bring my deet!


now lunch, rest, and get ready to go out in the afternoon!

Journey, arrival and welcome!

Beautiful weather to travel!

The last two days have been a bit of a blur. I left Cambridge, with my family, we drove to Newton, had lunch with my Mom & Dad, before going to the airport in Boston. From there with a short, quick layover in NYC, to
Zurich. It all went smoothly, and all aspects were fine, just long!  Arriving in Zurich, I found some fellow artists and our contact who drove us another 2 hours to Salem.

The magic of travel! In a few short hours your 1/2 way around the globe!

This is the campus were staying in, lovely in itself, but it's part of the Salem college, and were officially guests of Schloss Salem, an amazing place, first a medieval monastery, with much history and culture, of which we toured, and were warmly welcomed!


by the time we got here I was 24 hours no sleep!, but too excited to do so, this was Tuesday after noon, the tour would begin soon.

We were given a tour, abbreviated, the place is huge, has a long history, and is just beautiful!

This is the library!

Stairwell!

Cathedral.

Beauty through every doorway!

We took a walk to the hamlet maybe a mile or so down the most beautiful countryside.

Were were greeted and warmly welcomed by our hosts, who gave us dinner, the weather was as delicious as the food! and there was some informal entertainment as well.

More than lovely, we ate and started to get to know one another, a perfect preamble for our residency!

Back to my room for some sleep!

2nd place in a beauty contest, collect $300!

82  F hot and humid, cloudy, hazy.

Today was the Bennington Arts festival paint out.

This was my morning painting, I'm behind Greenberg's lumber yard (going out of business, bad news).  The map of the downtown paint area was small, and included the main streets, of course I had to find an out of the way place!

#353 Washington Ave

12 x 16

$500

The morning was foggy, and thunder showers were predicted for the afternoon, but by the time I got started the sky had cleared enough, and this put sun on my panel! I liked this for the mountain view, and because I think it says something about the town...

The mountain really carries the painting, maybe too much...

There weren't much darks, I included the warehouse and the telephone pole, because they frame the mountain, and I like that, there're also dark.

For a parking lot there was a lovely regression from fore to mid ground.

There was lots of information and I'm not used to urban scenes, but by this time I was happy with the way I was able to simplify.

Telephone pole.

This is where I ended up. I was happy with it, even though I didn't think it was going to win any prizes or sell. I spent all of 2 hours painting, and now it was noon, so time to grab lunch!

This is the scene....

The organizers of the paint out encouraged us to paint here, and this happens to be a few steps from my favorite coffee houses so my post lunch coffee was right here, so I figured what the heck, it couldn't kill me.

 lights.

Darks

There were a lot of middle tones, although I've heard that all you need is three.

I thought I'd treat it like a farm......

This is where I ended up, I didn't submit this for judging.

The cars kept moving.....

The Money shot for the 2nd painting of the day.

I went out looking for the third spot of the day, I didn't have much time left, maybe an hour to actually paint if I didn't take too long to find it. I also forgot to take photos.

Here is where I ended up, I liked this and submitted it and thought it was better than the other one......

This is the sight size shot, I'm not sure why it's so dark, but at this point, I had to get the paintings signed, labeled and framed and delivered.

Wow! I got 2nd place, and some prize money!